Alice in the Land of Steam

Olvera likes reading, but this love is not innate to her, just as no one is born to understand their own emotions. When she stood in the garden full of violets, still ignorant of her past life, only sadness and loneliness dominated her life in this life. Her father was busy with government affairs, her mother was bedridden, and her peers were afraid of her identity and curse and kept their distance from her. This environment shaped her character, making the girl introverted, silent and delicate. She buried herself in books all day long, drawing the only comfort she could get from them.

This may explain that a person's hobbies and habits have nothing to do with the blood that flows in her body. Even if she is born as the princess of the Leslie royal family, she may not be used to the complicated court etiquette and the awkward polite words; similarly, even if she was a mentor of the Goddess of Creation in her previous life, and a young queen who held the power of mystery in her previous life, she may not like to stay in the library and read those long and obscure narratives over and over again.

Everyone is shaped by the environment around them, especially when they are most confused and helpless. This influence is enough to change even a deep-rooted soul. For Olvera, such changes are countless. She can't tell you clearly how many unforgettable stories she has experienced in her life to shape herself into what she is now, but among them, there must be a part of Lingge.

If the young man hadn't said to her, "You've read so many books and always like to quote others, why haven't you ever thought about writing a book yourself?", she would never have embarked on this path. Although his tone was not so friendly at the time, and his words were not so nice.

Since that day, Ovilla rarely quoted words from the book. She recorded the emotions she wanted to convey not through other people's words, but with her own pen, and then wrote them on paper. Watching the white paper being filled with lead-colored words bit by bit, she felt a sense of satisfaction in her heart.

Later, she showed her first carefully created work to Lingge. Although she wanted to ask for his opinion, she wanted more recognition and praise, right? Because Lingge was the one who led her to this path, he should naturally be her first reader. Otherwise, why didn't the girl go to Metien, Saint Charia, and the boss lady? If it were these people, they would definitely praise her, right? Unlike Lingge, who always said "pile up words", "empty", "needs to be improved", and other comments, which made people want to drive him out.

Olvera did not do so. Although she was very dissatisfied with Lingge's evaluation, didn't she accept his advice and consciously change her writing style? This contradictory mentality may be difficult for outsiders to understand, but only Olvera understood it. Who made Lingge her first reader? Judging from the situation at that time, he was probably the only reader.

The first reader always has some privileges. After all, if it weren't for him, other readers might not even see the book, right? Olvera even named her story after the young man, "Grimm's Fairy Tales", which is actually just Ringer's name reversed. It's not impossible to use his name directly, but the young people at that time were too calm, too rational and too realistic, which did not fit the setting of the fairy tale protagonist. Olvera wanted to portray a character who was enthusiastic, cheerful and full of fantasy, which was the opposite of the young man.

Of course, it was impossible to tell Lingge all this. If he knew that being the first reader would have so many privileges, would he make even more excessive demands? Just like Alice, who always asked Yieta to give her more plots in her novels, or simply wanted to use her own messy plots to replace the original plots that Ovilla racked her brains to come up with. That wouldn't work. The author should have absolute control over his or her own work. How could he let someone who knows nothing to dictate his or her work?

Of course, Lingge was not the kind of person who "knew nothing", and some of his suggestions were quite advisable, but for some reason, this made Olvera even more wary of him, even more so than Alice who liked to play tricks. She had always carefully restrained her attitude, and tried to build a fortress of words, using paper and pen to conceal her feelings, never revealing any flaws, giving the young man who looked ordinary but was actually very dangerous a chance to take advantage of her.

She failed.

The young man finally knew what position he held in Olvera's work, what significance he had, and what he could do. But Olvera's failure was not due to her negligence, but because the young man had a more thorough attitude towards words than she did. He said that he had tried it once, but later found that he had no talent, so he chose to give up. But many things in this world are connected, because they are all born from human emotions. When he understood all emotions, he also understood all determination and choices.

He made her a request.

A very unreasonable request.

Although it doesn't make sense.

But at least, there are still very sincere emotions.

"Are you willing to become a fool for your first readers?"

"My favorite author, Miss Olvera?"

……

The girl stared at the words on the paper silently. She knew every word, but she never thought that they could convey such strong emotions when combined. This was what he said, the greatest and most ordinary power of words. Unfortunately, she never understood it well.

Olvera sighed softly, and one could sense a hint of helplessness in her voice, but more of relief.

"Now that things have come to this, how can I refuse, my 'first reader' Mr. Ling?"

She deliberately emphasized the tone of those words, perhaps because she was dissatisfied with someone who used his status to threaten her, but the smile on the girl's face showed that she didn't really mean it. Sometimes being treated as a fool is unacceptable, but sometimes being expected to be a fool proves that you may have a special position in his heart.

The difference between them is difficult to grasp, at least it is impossible to draw a conclusion based on the information in the book alone, so Ovella can confidently say that this is not experience, but intuition.

So-called, girl's intuition, right?

"In that case," Ling Ge said, "When you finish writing the rest of the story, remember to show it to me."

Avella blinked her eyes. "I just promised you that I would continue writing, but I haven't figured out how to write it next. What if the plot is not satisfactory to you?"

"No story can satisfy everyone, but at least it can make you feel at peace with yourself." Linger said this and looked out the window. The night was dark as water. A street led to Tianxin Church in the distance. The shadows of several people could be vaguely seen walking away under the light of street lamps. Among them must be the person who was the most confused and sad at the time, but didn't she also walk out of the room? So: "The past has already happened, and the most important thing about the story is to move forward."

The young man stared at the girl sitting opposite him and said, "Perhaps your story contains the courage to make people move forward, Olivia." The young writer was a little flustered by this look. Somehow, she felt a wave of heat on her cheeks, as if she was burning. She lowered her head quickly so that Lingge would not notice anything unusual, and pretended to be calm and asked back, "Perhaps you overestimate me?"

"I'm not overestimating you, but I believe in my own vision."

The young man shook his head and said, "My favorite writer naturally has this ability."

My favorite writer...

Because of this sentence, Ovilla's eyes fell back on the draft paper in her hand, staring at the line of words written by him, in a trance. What kind of mood was he in when he wrote this sentence? When he said it himself, did he ever doubt his own judgment? If one day, he could grow up to be an excellent creator, excellent enough to say "My favorite writer is Ovilla" to people all over the world, not just to himself in this room, how great would that be?
My favorite author is…Olvera…

My favorite is...Olvera...

Like...Olvera...

"Hey hey hey."

The girl suddenly laughed foolishly, which scared Ling Ge: "What's wrong with you, Olvera? Why are you laughing so... disgustingly?"

"Hey, what's disgusting about it!" This was the first time that Princess Beman received such a comment. In the past, everyone from her parents to her teachers, from the maids in the palace to the residents on the street praised her innocent and lovely smile, which was as warm and gentle as the spring sun. How come it became disgusting when it came to your mouth? Are you trying to attract my attention in this alternative way? As Alice often said, boys like to bully girls of the same age to express their awkward affection.

I didn’t expect that, Lingge, you actually have such a childish side!
She raised her eyebrows and glared at the young man with contempt and anger.

Lingge didn't really want to use such words to describe the smile of a young girl, but there was really no other more appropriate adjective. And he was sure that Avella was definitely thinking about some messed up things in her mind just now, which might even be worse than the genius player's whimsical ideas or the pranks of the Princess of the Sea. Therefore, Lingge, who was deeply harmed by the two, had such an idea in the first place.

He felt that it was not his fault, but unfortunately Aoweila probably wouldn't believe this explanation. She would be more likely to get angry and then increase the intensity of the accusation, so Lingge wisely gave up his defense and changed the subject in time: "Ahem, let's put the novel aside for now, let's talk about business first."

"Business?" As expected, Avella didn't realize that this was the young man's trick to change the subject. She tilted her head in confusion: "Isn't the topic of the novel considered business?"

"Of course not." Ling Ge was a little speechless: "You don't think I'm looking for you just to chat, do you?"

"I hope so."

Aoweila muttered something, and then asked back: "Then tell me, what do you want to find with my royal power?"

Once the serious business is mentioned, it is mostly related to her royal power [Library of Truth]. Princess Beman is still self-aware of this. After all, the decisions and plans of the team are basically made by Lingge, and sometimes he will discuss with Saint Xia Liya, and others just need to follow.

She guessed it right this time too.

"Regarding the alliance with the Ash Guerrillas," Linger explained, "Since it is an alliance, we must make some sacrifices. At the moment, the most needed assistance for the Ash Guerrillas is nothing more than force, supplies and intelligence. As for the force, Xino is responsible, but she can only take action at the most critical moment; as for supplies, we have the hotel and Rolena, so we have no shortage of them, and Metien can also provide them with urgently needed medical assistance; as for you——"

"As for me," Ovella took over the conversation. She already understood what Ling Ge wanted to express: "Of course I am responsible for the most critical and important intelligence, right?"

"Ah."

Linger nodded slightly, not denying her statement. In a sense, the intelligence that Olvera can provide is indeed the most critical and important thing in this war. The force provided by Xino is the secret weapon that will determine the situation on the entire battlefield; the supplies provided by the Fairy Sleep Inn and Rolena, as well as the medical assistance provided by Metien, can make the Ash Guerrillas more resilient and no longer as fragile as before. One or two failures are enough to bring them to the brink of disbandment. Both of these are naturally indispensable, but only with intelligence, only with reliable intelligence, can the Ash Guerrillas get out of the current predicament and turn the situation around bit by bit until they win the final victory.

Without this support, Shino's plan of "with the material support of Cloud Whale Sky Island, the Ash Guerrillas will unite with other resistance organizations in the Ansers region to launch a counterattack against the Axis forces, and gradually suppress the enemy's forces in a small area centered on the Ash Hill City Suare, creating conditions for their own appearance, relying on absolute force to settle the matter before the Witch Society can react" would never succeed.

"According to the intelligence provided by the Ash Guerrillas, the Axis forces currently stationed in Suare City are the 17th Legion, which is a joint force of the Great Empire of Mindreas, the Knights of Lesonville, and the Principality of Monroe. Its subordinate units include three regular divisions, a magician regiment, a chariot unit, and three field mobile units. In addition, it also includes a mechanized air force composed of airships, dragoons, death crows, and a small number of mechanical soldiers. The total strength is about 70,000."

Linger said word by word: "What I need you to do is to query the Library of Truth and record all the key information about this legion, including its personnel composition, troop deployment, the identity of the commander, the location of special bases, the transportation channels for logistical materials, and even the handover time of each sentry post, and then provide it to the Ash Guerrillas."

"With this information, I am sure that even if the strength of the front battlefield is very different, they can still rely on their own strength to gradually turn the situation in our favor!" (End of this chapter)